Powerful Hurricane Idalia slammed into the southeastern U.S. on Wednesday, flooding Gulf of Mexico coastal cities in the state of Florida before its winds weakened over land and it moved rapidly northeast toward the neighboring state of Georgia.
Authorities reported at least two people were killed in car crashes related to the storm and more than 250,000 people were left without electricity.
Storm surges pushed the coastal surf to nearly 2½ meters higher than normal at Cedar Key, near where Idalia made landfall, but the hurricane came ashore at low tide, minimizing an even worse surge of floodwater.
Still, Idalia tied with an 1896 hurricane as the strongest ever to hit Florida’s Big Bend area, where the peninsular state curves to meet its panhandle region to the west.
The storm, as it tracked northward in the early hours Wednesday, flooded many coastal areas along Florida’s western shoreline. It packed 195-kph winds when it came ashore, but by afternoon winds had diminished to 150 kph.
Forecasters said a large swath of the region could get 10 to 20 centimeters of rain, and isolated areas up to 30 centimeters.
Hurricane-force winds extended 35 kilometers outward from the center of the storm, the National Hurricane Center said, and tropical-storm-force winds extended outward up to 370 kilometers.
“Although Idalia will weaken further while the center is inland, it is still expected to be a hurricane through [Wednesday afternoon or evening] while moving across southeastern Georgia and southern South Carolina,” the hurricane center said. “Idalia is forecast to be a tropical storm while moving near the coasts of northeastern South Carolina and North Carolina [Wednesday night] and on Thursday.”
Authorities ordered mandatory evacuations in eight Florida counties in the storm’s path, with people in 14 other counties encouraged to leave.
In preparation for rescue and repair efforts, about 5,500 National Guard troops were activated, and more than 30,000 utility workers stood by ahead of the storm’s arrival.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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